New Add-On Content Released For FFIV: The After Years

Square-Enix has announced that an add-on pack for their mobile-turned-WiiWare title Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is now available for download in PAL territories.

Called The Crystals "The Planet Eater," the add-on will run you 800 spacebucks and 17 blocks, and you've gotta stop the world from a lightbulb apocalypse or something:

As the world is cloaked in darkness, Rydia and Edge search for their old friends. Meanwhile, King Cecil of Baron confronts Kain, Rosa, and Ceodore inside his castle. The world is being laid to waste. Can anything be done to stop the encroaching danger?

Our guess is that, yes, something probably can be done about the encroaching danger, most likely by sticking a sword through someone or something. If you're finally feeling fantastically stabby, give it a whirl.

Picked it up and Christ, I really should've leveled up my characters in their respective tales first. Problem is, I couldn't be bothered to tackle the optional Challenge Dungeons at the end of the chapters, so I'm currently getting my ass kicked all over the world. It's like Street Fighter Alpha 3 basically.

I'll get my money's worth though, due to the amount of level grinding ahead of me.

You should download a few chapters, Wolfie. You certainly get your 300 points worth per chapter compared to other DLC. These aren't just cosmetic additions, they make up the whole The After Years game. Now some games you can get away with not downloading anything but just owning the initial download means you're missing out on a whole lot. In fact, its pointless to own the initial download and not play the rest - they all tie into each other.

Thank you for the information Bass XO. I was intending to get all of the chapters but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will be starting with Rydia's chapter first and then work my way through the rest. Nice to know that I will be getting my money's worth.

i finished the first bunch of tales in about 6 hours, plus the challenge dungeon another 6 hours.The individual tales took me 1.5 hours - 3 hours, plus the lvl grinding and the challenge dungeon, lets say, some 6-8 extra hours per chapter.Finally the last tale, took me around 11 hours to beat. Awesome game, definitely rewarding for 37 bucks

This is the end, and yes, all of you WANT to purchase all the episodes and level up all the characters. This is really an extraordinary sequel of the original game (I hope you have played it before...). Enjoy it!!!

@Gabe - Funny story about that. You see, Square was on the brink of bankruptcy when they created the FF series. It seems that (if you can believe it) no one liked their RPGs! So they called their last RPG "Final Fantasy" with the understanding that it would be the company's swan song.

As it turned out, the game was so popular that it pulled Square back from the brink of bankruptcy and led to one of the most iconic RPG series in history. Thus the "Final" fantasy just keeps going and going and going...

@thewiirocks Square wasn't just a RPG company. Rad Racer is a classic Square game from before the first Final Fantasy. However you are correct that Final Fantasy was created because they only had enough funds left to create a final game. Fortunately for them, it succeeded and they have been milking it for all it is worth since then.

I must be the only one who liked the original better and disliked this title, I will definitely not be downloading any of the DLC. I much rather pour my money into My Life as a Darklord, or wait till The Crystal Bearers. I love Final Fantasy, my favorite Rpg series ever but i just can't pull my self to like this one, my loss i suppose.This was just for my collection i guess.

See, now thats WHY you dislike it. You have very little connection to it. The more you play and complete, the more you want to get the full story as to whats going on and what everyone is doing. What you did is jump into a novel and read only the fifth chapter (for example) so all the clever inter-connecting plot threads and crossovers between chapters are completely lost on you. And did you manage to get to the end or did you just give up half way through? You have to download some more.

i'd buy this after i completed the chapter before this, but i dont have any yeti wont buy these before knowing the 1st story, so hurry up SE and Nintendo lets get FFIV, then play it, when completed it (i might play around some more) and then if i like it, i'll buy these after years parts and complete them one by one

I still haven't finished the final chapter yet (level grinding) but I would say it makes up almost 50% of the game. I skipped on some of the chapters so I am missing some supporting characters like Ursula and Harley but I'm still enjoying the final chapter more than previous chapters.

I'm almost scared to play this game, from all the stories I read about gamers frustrated at manipulating random number generation during battles so they can get items necessary to better equip the characters. I bought it and just recently splurged on ALL of the DLC chapters, now I just need to buck up, sit down, and PLAY it.

Its a big game. Bigger than your regular WiiWare game despite its retro graphics. Sure you get more for less on Virtual Console equivalents but then thats completely different since they were once full priced retail games. A developer couldn't give us a new game the size of a Virtual Console game for the same price as a Virtual Console game.

Monkey Island is making you pay to get the whole story yet because its individual downloads rather than DLC for the initial download, it doesn't seem to be getting a bad reputation. I wonder how different opinions would be if Monkey Island's further chapters were DLC like TAY's chapters are.

I recently finished FFIV DS, and after deciding that more of the same would be rad, I've just splurged some cash on the intial download and four of the character tales. I'm about one hour into the game and I have a question about the DLC. I notice that you can access each individual tale from the menu screen. If I was to start playing one of them just now, would I be controlling characters other than Ceodore, or does your Ceodore stats transfer through to each tale?

I should just try it out, but if seems a bit disjointed, accessing storylines from the main menu rather than encountering them out in the world. Could someone give me a brief lowdown as to how this actually works?

#27: You play as the characters whose name is in the tale. Once you finish their tale, they will become available to play in the final chapter which this article is talking about ("The Crystals: Planet Eater").

You start the Final Chapter with Rydia, Luca, That Man in Black and Edge. Your stats for those characters match those you bought over from their individual chapters so if you didn't play/complete those chapters you have an uphill struggle to catch up raising their levels as there are tough monsters. I had not completed Rydia's tale and when I tried the Final Chapter out, the girls dropped dead in the first battle.

Well its up to you, odd. There are games I wouldn't download anything despite everyone else doing so (Megaman 9) but I do recommend you download at least one chapter when you have spare points, I suggest either Edward or Yang's. You don't need to play them in release order.

"You start the Final Chapter with Rydia, Luca, That Man in Black and Edge. Your stats for those characters match those you bought over from their individual chapters so if you didn't play/complete those chapters you have an uphill struggle to catch up raising their levels as there are tough monsters. I had not completed Rydia's tale and when I tried the Final Chapter out, the girls dropped dead in the first battle."

Hmmm, so it would be a good idea to at least play through the stories of those four characters. I see, thanks. Is it possible to play the final chapter with the same characters that were used in the original... Cecil, Rosa, Edge, Kain and Rydia? Now that would be pretty cool...

Well I haven't played The Final Chapter much, just to try it out but you're going to be playing with all the main characters eventually whether you have downloaded the chapters or not. Importing your stats from the individual chapters to The Final Chapter just helps you out a lot. I think you get to choose your own party of five eventually out of the whole cast but I'm not sure.

final fantasy IV after years was great concept, but the fact that they released less then half the story completly ruined it for me.... i got to the "end" of the first part in less then ten days, and it suddenly ended. then i completly lost interest. i feel like i wasted 800 points already,......nintendo was meen to me...